Bo Melson, get in line!

Bo, you are not the only person here in Bedford County about to become wealthy. I too received one of those e-mails about having money available in some foreign country. I purposely ignored that one.

The latest offer came in the mail. It's from NME Prize Disbursement in Clearwater, FL. They are trying to reach me regarding my $2,100,000.00 Sweepstakes ID. They can easily reach me, as they have my address. First though, I have to submit a legal entry and verify my eligibility. It states that the prize will be awarded to the selected winner as 30 annual installments of $70,000.00. Hey, I may not be here in 30 years. If I am, chances are the only places I'll spend money will be at the doctors' offices, hospitals and nursing home, and it may take the $70,000.00 annually.

I decided to reach for the magnifying glass in order to read the very tiny print on the back. These are the "Strike it Rich VI Sweepstakes Official Rules". The grand prize consumer disclosures state that the contest period ends at 11:59 pm (ET) on 2/2/2010. Finally it states that in lieu of the 30 annual payments of $70,000.00, the lucky winner can opt to receive one lump sum payment of $1,100,000.00. Now that sounds more like it.

The form that looks like a check but has "this is not a check" across the center, has a facsimile signature of Pat Haines, NME Sales Chairman. I wonder if Pat is related to the Haynes clan here in Bedford County. My mother was a Haynes from Unionville, and I know both spellings of the name were common in olden days.

So here I sit in a quandary trying to decide if I want to call the 1-800 number and give them my entry code. No, there is no way I would call that number. I do have it available if some investigative reporter is interested in pursuing this.

What is a shame is that someone still falls for these. That "toll free" number alone might cost the caller a lot of money. They got to offshore locations and are somehow allowed to charge your phone number.

It would seem that the phone companies could not honor those charges, but.....

-- Posted by stevemills on Sun, Dec 23, 2007, at 9:09 AM

Congratulations. Pat could be male or female but you can bet good old Pat will request your bank account number, social security number, a credit card number or all three.

-- Posted by bomelson on Sun, Dec 23, 2007, at 2:58 PM

I got one of those things years ago and called just to see what they had to say. It was a sales gimick...I think they were selling magazines. It's a sneaky way for you to be the telemarketer, instead of them calling you, you are calling them.